Sales of PVs tanked 17% in April 2019

The primary reason behind the fall in sales are the political uncertainty and stressed consumer sentiment say industry experts

Indian passenger vehicle wholesales slide continued in the first month of the fiscal year 2020.

The overall passenger vehicle wholesales declined by 17% year on year at 2,45,599 units in April 2019 compared to 2,96,369 units dispatched in the same month last year, reveals an industry estimated data.

The primary reason behind the fall in sales are the political uncertainty and stressed consumer sentiment say industry experts.

Impending agri-distress due to below monsoon expectations also contributed to the weak demand. This also lead to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) projected a conservative single digit growth in FY2020. Increase in cost of acquisition owing to rising commodity prices also marred the demand.

Nikunj Sanghi, director, international affair, FADA, said, “One of the biggest indicators of weak consumer sentiment is de-growth in FMCG sector, as well as tightening of NBFC credit lines, have been a major contributor in this”. However, he feels that retail sales at the dealership the level will be slightly better.”

Also, last year in the month of February there were a lot of car launches in Auto Expo due to which there was a lot of excitement in the market and car sales went up during April 2018, hence a high base effect also played a role.

Honda Cars India was the only manufacturer to registered positive growth, among the total 12 major car manufacturers.

The double-digit de-growth in passenger vehicle sales are largely a reflection of dip in sales of Maruti Suzuki which covers 50% of the market.

The maker of best-selling cars like Alto, Dzire, Swift, and Baleno posted a decline of 20% percent at 1,31,385 units (vehicle sold to Toyota not included) in April 2019 compared to 1,63,434 units in the same month last year.